As autumn begins, we are reminded that seasons of change invite us to release what no longer serves us and to make space for new growth. The turning leaves teach us that transformation is both beautiful and necessary. In this season, UUFM has an opportunity to recommit to a shared sense of critical hope. Critical hope urges us beyond wishful thinking or acceptance of the moment in which we find ourselves. Instead, critical hope is a form of disciplined, collective resistance. Together, we dare to imagine beyond what is and come together to create what can be. This is the power of Unitarian Universalism: the courage to transform despair into possibility and to co-create a future rooted in justice and equity.

This September, the Board held our annual retreat as a chance to pause, reflect, and envision a path forward for UUFM. At the retreat, we engaged deeply with the Convergence Strategic Framework, which offers guidance for how faith communities can show up in this era of growing threats to democracy and humanity. The framework outlines four distinct pathways that congregations might embrace, each reflecting an opportunity to embody our Unitarian Universalist values of justice, pluralism, generosity, interdependence, and equity.

One of our most important insights was the need for organizational coordination. As a community, we must focus our collective energy where our unique gifts can have the greatest impact. This does not diminish or limit the powerful contributions that individuals in our congregation bring to the wider world. Rather, it ensures that together, as UUFM, we act with clarity, intention, and depth. During the Board retreat, we began to consider which of the four pathways might best reflect the needs of our congregation and broader community.

September also saw the second convening of the Board and Community Team for a co-parent retreat, during which time we reaffirmed our shared responsibility to advance the mission and vision of UUFM. The co-parent retreat was grounded in the spirit of partnership and co-ownership, and it was through this spirit that the Board and Community Team collaboratively chose to focus our congregational energy on the pathway of envisioning and co-creating positive, alternative futures. This pathway calls on us to be a community of radical imagination, storytelling, and visioning; a place that pushes back against fear-driven narratives and instead insists on hope, possibility, and transformation.

As a congregation of positive, alternative futures, we will imagine boldly to re-shape what is possible for ourselves and the broader world. As we look ahead, the Board is excited to carry this commitment into action. Together, we are committing to be a congregation that not only resists fear but also actively co-creates the world of love and hope that we want to live in. Let us create and be a space for telling of stories, sharing of dreams, honoring of values, and empowering of hope.

 In community,

Mac Benavides

Board Chair